From RVtravel.com: The common sense resource for RVers since 2001 • Issue 2784
From Chuck, Emily, Diane, Kim, and everyone else behind the scenes here… We wish you a very, very, very Happy Thanksgiving. We are grateful for YOU! We hope you have a wonderful day, whatever it looks like. Cheers, friends.
(Sorry for the shorter, abbreviated newsletter today—We’re busy eating!)
Today’s thought
“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” —Doris Day
On this day in history: 1924 – In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.
Story of the day
Thanksgiving: What a season of gratitude and hope teaches us
This article was originally published a few years ago, but we like to remind you of its special message each year on Thanksgiving.
By Nanci Dixon
During the trying times of the last few years, I am reminded that this is the season of giving thanks. I will admit that in the past the meaning of Thanksgiving was usually lost under the anticipation and management of a turkey. Nope, not a favorite uncle—a real turkey. And, of course, the dressing and all the other sides. The true meaning was lost somewhere in the planning, buying groceries, setting the table, and baking the pies. (I won’t even mention Black Friday.) Continue reading.
IMPORTANT REMINDER: Do not drink and drive today (or any day) and be careful on the roads, folks.
Video
Stupid turkeys!
I (Emily) laugh so hard every time I watch this. Make sure your volume is turned up loud and make it full-screen for the best viewing experience. I am crying!
FAMILY DRIVING YOU NUTS? Retail therapy helps!
Shop all Amazon Black Friday sales here. Hurry, the sales are almost over!
Featured article
The amazing, belching turkey I once met
By Chuck Woodbury
His name was Tom and he lived in Douglas, Wyoming. His owner was a man named Jim Herrick, who makes and sells jackalopes. Jim’s uncle, in fact, invented the jackalope in taxidermy. I ran into Jim one day while RVing and visited his workshop. Out front, I met Tom. He was a big turkey—not handsome, nothing special to look at. But he seemed friendly. Little did I know his special talent. (In case you missed this last Sunday.)
It’s hard to believe how little turkey farmers earn!
As you sit at your Thanksgiving table today and enjoy your turkey, consider how much the farmer who raised that bird earned for his efforts. It’s hard to believe, but on a turkey that sells for $2.49 a pound the farmer makes a puny six cents per pound. You may wonder why these farmers even bother. Read all about it.
Website of the day
Online Thanksgiving puzzles
Have a few free minutes? Need to escape the family table for a breather? Here are a few free puzzles you can complete online, all Thanksgiving-themed!
FUN FACT (er, kinda sad fact…): Approximately 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving in the United States
Trivia
Did you know that Thanksgiving wasn’t officially celebrated across the United States until 1863? President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday, calling for a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Before that, various states celebrated their own Thanksgiving days, often at different times of the year. Lincoln’s proclamation set the date as the final Thursday in November, a tradition that continued until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it up a week to extend the holiday shopping season. This change was unpopular and was reversed in 1941, when Congress officially declared Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.
? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ?
Do you need this? No. We’re fairly certain nobody in the whole entire world needs this. Are plenty of people buying it anyway? Yes. Would you buy this? If so, um, why?
Pets of the day
These are not any of your pets (or are they??), but we couldn’t resist sharing. This photo is from the Therapy K9s of Southwest Florida.
FREE IS GOOD! Get a free full-color 2026 calendar commemorating the National Capital region of Prince George’s County, Maryland. The 6″x6″ calendar, showcasing historic sites and natural landscapes, will be mailed to you in late December. From Anacostia Trails Heritage Area.
Leave here with a laugh
Today’s weather forecast across the nation
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To all I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving from Canada! We celebrated Thanksgiving October 13. Safe travels!
Thank you and hope you enjoyed your holiday as well. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Thank you Leonard. Here’s wishing you and yours a great weekend. Stay warm up there! 🙂
Thanks!
Temperature is not bad, but getting a few snow flurries! Yuck.
We miss our Canadian winter friends down here in Texas Hill Country. The small RV park where we winter hosted 3 couples from 3 Provinces year after year. None opted to return this year.
Sorry to hear they didn’t return.
We have visited the Texas Hill Country a couple of times during our last four Snowbird winters in your beautiful country. What a wonderful place, made even better by all the people we met!
Unfortunately we had five months booked in Palm Springs for this winter, but we did end up cancelling it. I’m sure you can guess why.
Regardless, woe is not me. While our RV is parked this winter, we will be visiting Costa Rica in January, Majorca in March, Calgary in May, and Germany in October. Life is just not bad.
I hope our two great countries lose the rhetoric and we can again have our goods and services flow more freely between us. If so, see you in Palm Springs next winter!
I can’t blame you for staying home. It’s also not the same down here with National Parks closing or cutting back. People losing their jobs for no good reason. And the U.S. slowly becoming a dictatorship.
Yes Bob, it is way different. Crime down, inflation down, gas price down, market up, illegal migration stopped, waste down, taxes down, mortgage rates down and dropping. Need more? Foreign investments up, Church attendance up, Bible sales highest in decades, college tuitions dropping, prescription prices dropping, wars ending, IRAN de-nuked. Still need more…..?
So much to be thankful for on this day for giving thanks.
Happy trails Bob.
✌️😎
By next May, you might need your passport to visit the Free and independent Country of Alberta and Calgary. Danielle Smith is on a roll. I guess the bigger question is, once Ontario has to buy oil from Alberta at market price with Ontario money, will you be as angry at the newly formed country of Alberta as you are at the USA? At some point, Ontario will have to pay it’s fare share instead of just taking what it needs from others who produce it.
Thanks for the wishes, Leonard. Back at you for a peaceful and warm season of celebration.
😎✌️
Hi Cancelproof,
I do enjoy your commentary, even though I disagree with most of it!
Alberta will never be its own country, same as Quebec. Danielle and our PM just signed a MOU to build a new pipeline to Northern BC, for our Asian market friends! Yes, it will probably take 7-10 years, but at least it is coming. It would be nice to restart XL as well as you guys do like Canadian oil, who knows.
FYI, I am most definitely not angry at the USA, only one guy.
All the best!
Totally agree Leonard, it is great to have the reparte between us as we do. I enjoy your comments also. Did Eby, Premier of BC, not put up some fresh barriers to that PL build? I understand that NO Canadian pipeline builder will even get involved do to the risk of doing business in their own country building this pipeline. Maybe those hurdles have now been removed. Anyhow, stay warm. 🇺🇲✌️🇨🇦
Eby and Indigenous groups have little say. Our PM will ensure that they are partners and profit immensely. New legislation has already been passed to speed up the permitting process for “Nation Building Projects.”
Our PM is opening Canada up for business again, so we should be able to find private/public partners, Canadian or international.
Lots of Nuclear power on the books now as well.
🇺🇲✌️🇨🇦. The diversity of Canada, from the eastern maritime provinces to the prairies and the Pacific, losing Alberta and Saskatchewan would collapse the country. No energy, no food…. no chance. I do not wish for that either. If Carney would shut down the mass immigration he can then harness the true potential and greatness that is truly the Canadian way, and great things can and will happen. The more free Canadians become, truly free, to prosper, to speak, to protect themselves and to worship, the divides will heal internally and externally. See you next winter….✌️😎🇺🇲🇨🇦
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
We had a wild turkey at our shop years ago, We named him Clyde. He would greet and chase customers cars in the yard. He became kind of famous around town especially with the local college kids. people would come and take pictures and videos of him. Kids loved him. The boss made sure he was the best fed turkey around. He was missed when he decided to move on a year later.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Little known trivia is that the Song jingle bells was written as a Thanksgiving song. So if you’re in your one horse open sleigh, headed to grandma‘s house have a great day. Copied from Google (“Jingle Bells” was written in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont, originally with the title “One Horse Open Sleigh”. It is often cited as having been written for a Thanksgiving celebration, possibly a Sunday school class, and was inspired by sleigh races that were popular at the time. The song was later performed at Christmas, which helped to link it to that holiday instead.)
Love the Pets of the day!
happy thanksgiving to all our rv travel community.
Celebrating with Family in Waco. I’m sorry that all of our family couldn’t be together but I told them I would have a second slice of pumpkin pie in their honor.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
To the great staff and writers at RV Travel and the entire RV community, as said by a sage traveler and commenter recently :
“Hope all y’all have a good Thanksgiving”
(thank you N.D. !)
Thank you, Bill. We hope you and yours, and all of our wonderful readers, have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving.🤗 –Diane
The pets of day are super disciplined or that’s a plastic turkey! Reminds of my beautiful late Dalmatian, Dally, who swiped a T-bone steak off my plate faster than a streak of lightning!
Our Burt devoured 50% of the Easter ham. We trimmed, baked, and enjoyed our half.
That is the comment of the day. LOL, hahaha. Thanks Rebecca.
Happy Thanksgiving. Hahaha
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all, have a nice nap.